Across Cultures and Centuries

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We all know that stories describing unusual healings go back as far as human existence. They have been passed· from generation to generation, in all cultures and on every continent. At the onset of medical studies, students are merely taught that medicine originated in Greece, and that the Greeks were the primary source of medical knowledge.

The obvious fact that the very first medical beliefs go back thousands of years to the period of glory of ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Mesopotamia, India, China, Mexico and Peru has been kept in silence. It is not true that we do not possess any information about the medicine of those early years. Archaeology, anthropology and sailor stories, as well as the accounts of merchants, missionaries and the first pilgrims from Europe, provided us with much valuable information about complicated medical procedures that were successfully performed hundreds and thousands of years ago. Now, more and more medical books are being translated from languages and dialects distant from ours, both geographically and culturally, in which we can discover an abundance of medical practices based on the close bonds people had with the nature.

There has always been a broad understand that physical well-being is closely associated with psychological health, emotional balance and spiritual values, and that wellness is a reflection of the environment in which one lives.

Many ancient and even contemporary medical practices, based on unfamiliar views of life and death, are so difficult for us to understand that we reject them a priori (i.e. in advance), despite the existence of documents and other evidence indicating that people have performed such practices everywhere throughout history. Positive results, meaning physical, emotional and mental health, were also interpreted differently, depending on the level of knowledge, belief system and understanding of the nature of the world. Since these practices do not parallel our world view, we cannot explain them on the basis of what we have learned at schools and universities, and so we choose the easiest way out - we deny them. This attitude is especially prevalent among people who call themselves "scientists," even though ignoring such a phenomenon goes against the very nature of the scientific method. One of these ancient practices is called laying on of hands, or what has been most often described as healing by transferring energy.

In the past laying on of hands by ordinary people was often severely restricted or even forbidden. A close look at the cultures involved shows that the more structured the society, the more limitations were imposed in that regard, and that in many cases the society the laying on of hands was restricted to privileged groups.

In ancient Egypt, for example, healing could only be performed by Pharaoh, meaning the highest priest and God in one person, or by other priests who were chosen by him.  Interesting information about laying on of hands for the purpose of eliminating pain can be found in papyrus from Ebers, dated at 1550 B.C.  In Babylon and Mesopotamia, healing was also the province of the king and the highest priesthood.  In ancient Greece, Pythagoras, a physician, mathematician, philosopher, astrologer who lived in the sixth century B.C., considered healing to be his most notable duty. He described the 'pneuma' or the energy connected with the process as manifesting around the body as an aura of light. One hundred years later, the celebrated doctor, Hippocrates claimed that perceptions of warmth and tingling, which accompany laying on of hands and the process of sending energy, lead to the disappearance of pain. He even instructed doctors in the application of energy, so we can presume that doctors in ancient Greece already knew of this practice.

In some European countries, "God's touch" was reserved only for the king, while in others such a healing method could also be performed by monks. Later on, many of these monks were elevated to sainthood. There were periods in medieval Europe when healing was performed by the so-called "mead people" heal those who were ill by serving as channels for God. Some of them were considered "untouchable" because they served as mediums or channels of God’s energy. The Bible contains numerous descriptions of miraculous healings originating from the belief in laying on of hands. Christ the Healer and his apostles such healings on many occasions.

According to some non-Christian traditions, such as Taoism (China), Buddhism (Tibet) and Hinduism (India), the process of healing is associated with the belief in the power of the Omnipotent Spirit of the Universe, penetrating all of creation. Each of us is a carrier of an element of this Spirit. Those of us who have more of this spiritual element can help others rise to a higher level of consciousness.